The Most Dreaded Foe
by Do a Barrel Roll
Summary: Post-game, heavy spoilers. On their journey to collect all the Exspheres, Lloyd and Kratos come across a monster they never wanted to see again, leading to pain and humiliation...


**Since I've been playing Chronicles, I've been really itching to write a Symphonia fic. However, this was pretty hard...until I went around the world map and found two things: one of the relationship skits with Kratos and Lloyd, and what has to be one of my favorite monsters in the entire game. So here's the results of that!**

**And no, I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Disclaimers really get old, but at this point I feel like I have to put them in fics...**

* * *

A particularly jarring ocean wave collided into the boat and threw off Lloyd's balance, but the teenage boy-turned-angel still managed a grin even as the salty seawater splashed his face, making his hair sopping wet. Since the defeat of Mithos, his life had become virtually stress-free...compared to his previous journey, anyways. The world had been fully regenerated to its proper glory, the mana balance had been restored, and now Lloyd was free to travel a world as it was supposed to be...

Well, him and his father were free to travel it. His angel father, none the less.

It had taken some convincing, but Lloyd had eventually succeeded in having his guilt-ridden father stay on the united world with him. Kratos had spent the first few days awkwardly skirting around Dirk's house, unsure of how to be a proper father for his son, and so it had fallen to Lloyd to break the ice by asking Kratos to help him gather the Exspheres.

This had led to their situation now, with the two of them following through on an offer made long ago to journey on a boat of their own...granted, the boat was rickety and Kratos complained at least once a day about their hazardous repairs, but Lloyd always laughed and shrugged him off.

Speaking of grumpy, "elderly' angels, Kratos was coming up onto the deck now, a cup of coffee in his hands. "Hmph. You're up early," was all he said to Lloyd.

Lloyd glanced up to the sky to properly gauge the time. "...It has to be noon by now."

"I know. That's early for you," Kratos said with a smirk.

Lloyd mock-punched his dad in the arm and grinned. That was another bonus about this Exsphere hunt: Kratos had become much less uptight over the course of the past week. They had their ups and downs still (Four thousand years of cynicism did not fade away so easily for Kratos, and Lloyd had the attention span of a goldfish), but for the most part they were finally acting like the father-son duo they were, and Lloyd had even began calling Kratos "Dad" on occasion, though otherwise he avoided saying names.

"It's a pretty nice day out, I just thought I'd come up onto the deck this morning," said Lloyd.

Kratos made one of his characteristic, monosyllabic replies, took a sip of his strong, black coffee, and stared out to the endless ocean. "...It truly is," he finally said, long after Lloyd had forgotten what they'd been discussing. "Though I am still worried about the lack of monsters thus far. Normally the ocean is brimming with them, but this area has been all but barren. I had never heard of the oceans near Iselia being this...quaint."

Lloyd squinted as he looked upon the sparkling ocean himself. Seeing nothing of interest, he shrugged and grinned. "They're all probably just scared of us! Heh, the invincible Eternal Swordsman and a Seraph..."

Kratos decided to not comment on how the "invincible Eternal Swordsman" had been pummeled by one of Mithos's light attacks during the final battle, leaving Kratos to frantically heal his burns while Lloyd had done nothing but moan. "Hmm..." Shielding his sensitive eyes from the sun's blinding rays as well, he peered out to the ocean...and something caught his eye. "Or perhaps they were all fearful of a particular pack of monsters in the area."

"Huh?" Glancing out at the ocean again, Lloyd looked out to see what Kratos was seeing...and when he did, a long series of swear words escaped his lips. "Not those things again!"

Kratos threw aside his coffee and drew his sword, preparing for the onslaught. "This shouldn't be happening, we aren't near a beach-" The wind was knocked out of the ancient angel as a starfish suddenly slammed into his face, knocking him to the deck.

"Dad!" Lloyd couldn't help but cry out, but he went down next as one of the evil, vicious starfish smashed his solar plexus, all but making him want to hurl up his hearty breakfast.

The first starfish had shifted away from Kratos was was now appearing to be _taunting _him. It wiggled around Kratos's prone form, twitching its arms in a way that screamed, "Come on, son!" Lloyd shuddered just looking at it, those starfish had given them hell before...

Kratos sat back up, the scariest look that Lloyd had ever seen on his face. Rarely did the angel of death ever become this mad, save when facing Kvar, Mithos on his worst days, or Yuan armed with a barrel of tomatoes, but Lloyd had no doubt that Kratos was going to vivisock...vivisa...vivisee...do _something _to the stafish, something horrific and vengeful.

Lloyd's starfish was just as amused, but that was the least of Lloyd's worries. "There's more of them coming!"

_"What?!" _Kratos hollered as he fended off the starfish's next series of blows. Sparing a second's glance to the ocean, Kratos's glare narrowed into one that promised fiery vengeance as he saw the dozens of starfish swarming the boat, beginning to poke holes in the wood and climbing over to mug him and Lloyd. Cutting the starfish in half, Kratos decided desperate times call for desperate measures. "Lloyd, I need you to cover for me. And...don't die."

Lloyd paled but nodded, realizing what Kratos was going to do. "Right, I'll do my best to not die!" He stepped back in the fray, impeding any of the vicious invertebrae from harming his father while shimmering feathers gathered around Kratos's form as he drew his wings and concentrated.

_"Sacred powers..."_

"GAH! Stupid...starfish..."

_"Cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls..."_

"This isn't fair, we can't even eat them after we kill them!"

_"Rest in peace, sinners! Judgment!"_

Well, the attack was successful. It annihilated every starfish out there, turning the most vexing enemies of all into scorched dust...and it had the unfortunate side effect of vaporizing their boat.

* * *

"Wha' happened to ya?!" Dirk yelled in shock later that day when Lloyd and Kratos, hardly gone for a week, stumbled into his shanty sopping wet, Kratos with a star-shaped red mark on his face and Lloyd sporting several cuts and bruises.

Kratos walked over to the table and sunk into a chair, raising a hand to his face, leaving Lloyd to explain. "Uh...we got attacked by some huge sea serpents and our boat was destroyed..." Seeing his human father looking even more distraught than he did just seconds ago, Lloyd had to ask, "Wait, what's wrong?"

Kratos sighed and facepalmed. "...We could've just flown away."

"...Damnit!"

* * *

**And that was a result of me being bored during a make-up day in school (on a SATURDAY), and also me remembering how I once got defeated by those starfish on Mania Mode.**


End file.
